Universities are "at the beginning of the fallout" from COVID-19 and a second wave of redundancies is likely next year unless travel restrictions are lifted on international students, says higher education expert Mark Warburton.

RMIT University and the Australian National University both increased redundancy targets by more that 50 per cent this week and others, including the University of NSW, said they would move to compulsory redundancies after voluntary programs failed to deliver enough savings.